ASM-DT Underwater Assault Rifle
Encyclopedia
History and design
The introduction of the APS Underwater Assault RifleAPS Underwater Assault Rifle
The APS Underwater Assault Rifle is an AK-47 derivative designed by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s as an underwater firearm. It was adopted in 1975. It is made by the Tula Arms Plant in Russia...
solved the problem of how frogmen guarding a naval base
Naval base
A naval base is a military base, where warships and naval ships are deployed when they have no mission at sea or want to restock. Usually ships may also perform some minor repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that usually stay on the ships but are undergoing maintenance while...
could be armed, but there remained the problem of how to arm naval Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...
combat frogmen when they were deployed on assault missions. These forces required a weapon able to provide them with a level of firepower that would be the same whether they were on the surface or underwater. The APS was of little use out of water, because under those conditions it was inaccurate, with an effective range of only 50 meters. In addition, when it was used out of the water, it wore out quickly—with a barrel life dropping from approx. 2000 to only 180 to 200 rounds.
For this reason, the naval Spetsnaz forces often fell back on using the SPP-1 pistol
SPP-1 Underwater Pistol
The SPP-1 Underwater Pistol was made in the USSR for use underwater by Soviet frogmen as an underwater firearm. It was developed in the late 1960s and accepted for use in 1971. Underwater, ordinary-shaped bullets are inaccurate and very short-range...
for underwater fighting, and the AK-74
AK-74
The AK-74 is an assault rifle developed in the early 1970s in the Soviet Union as the replacement for the earlier AKM...
rifle for combat out of water. The commandos thought that this arrangement was unsatisfactory, and there continued to be demand for a new weapon, an underwater automatic rifle that would be as effective as an APS underwater and an AK-74 out of water.
Additional accessories include: flame arrestor , bushing for blank firing device for low-noise shooting UPMS, the instrument for quiet, flameless fire PBS, various types of optical and night sights , a 40-mm barrel-attached grenade launcher , bayonet , laser designator, and tactical flashlight . Framework butt foldaside, pistol grip and handguard are made of impact resistant plastic .
The combat effectiveness of ASM-DT is comparable with the AK-74 and APS when fired in air and water environments, respectively. For service machine was not adopted, and later switched to the team more promising machine - Td .
To meet this requirement, it had to be considered that a long smoothbore
Smoothbore
A smoothbore weapon is one which has a barrel without rifling. Smoothbores range from handheld firearms to powerful tank guns and large artillery mortars.-History of firearms and rifling:...
barrel was best for it to fire underwater. But, of course, the paradox was that a conventional type of projectile
Projectile
A projectile is any object projected into space by the exertion of a force. Although a thrown baseball is technically a projectile too, the term more commonly refers to a weapon....
fired from a rifled
Rifling
Rifling is the process of making helical grooves in the barrel of a gun or firearm, which imparts a spin to a projectile around its long axis...
barrel was best for firing out of water. To solve this, the rifle had to fire one kind of ammunition underwater and another kind out of water. This was achieved by having two different ammunition types and two feed slots with one behind the other, able to accept two different magazines at the same time. The design was done in 1991, at the Artillery Engineering Institute in Tula, Russia
Tula, Russia
Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...
, where Professor Yuriy Danilov was the rifle's project engineer. Danilov designed the ASM-DT to fire both 5.45 x 39 mm 7N6—a version of the standard Soviet ammunition, adapted to the caliber
Caliber
In guns including firearms, caliber or calibre is the approximate internal diameter of the barrel in relation to the diameter of the projectile used in it....
of the ASM-DT—and also
5.45 x 39 mm MGTS, underwater ammunition like that of the existing APS. The ASM-DT uses the same magazines as the APS while under water, and AK-74 magazines above water. The magazine release shifts forward when using AK-74 magazines, and the gas system automatically adjusts for firing out of water. To enable accurate shooting when outside of water, the barrel is rifled, however it has shallow grooves running along its length, which expel some gases ahead of the bullet and blow any water out of the barrel. This prevents the barrel from bursting if the rifle should need to be taken to the surface quickly, and fired outside of water without being drained first. In addition, the rifle can be equipped with a GP-25 grenade launcher
Grenade launcher
A grenade launcher or grenade discharger is a weapon that launches a grenade with more accuracy, higher velocity, and to greater distances than a soldier could throw it by hand....
, a bayonet, or a suppressor.
The Russian Federation accepted the ASM-DT into service in the year 2000.
See APS amphibious rifle for considerations involving shooting power underwater.
Notes
↑ Description of AFM-DT "Sea Lion" on the site gunrus.ru